Anti-polio campaign: Only one survives attack on polio team

Workers say they will not risk lives for Rs250 a day.

KARACHI:

For Anita and Akbari, Tuesday was the perfect day to combat a life-threatening disease. The health workers had been visiting Qayyumabad’s A Area to administer polio vaccines for over a year now. The people were always welcoming and the two women had developed a cordial relationship with the residents.

That morning, Anita and Akbari, had been assigned to cover street number 6. The other team, with Fahad Khaalil and Salma Bibi, were on street number 7.  At approximately 10:10am, Khaalil had just knocked on the door of a two-storey house when two men on a motorcycle came up from behind and shot the two health workers several times. Fahad sustained five bullet-wounds and died on the spot. Salma was shot thrice. A passerby, Syed Asghar Ali Shah, was also injured.

The assailants then turned into the adjacent street and targeted Anita and Akbari. Both were shot dead at point-blank range in front of a four-storey house they had just approached. The criminals escaped firing shots into the air.

“One of the women was still breathing when I reached the spot,” a resident told The Express Tribune. “They were lying on the street for around 10 minutes before anyone dared try to rescue them.” The bodies of the deceased and the injured were shifted to Jinnah Postgraduate and Medical Centre. “Fahad, Akbari and Anita were pronounced dead on arrival,” confirmed the medico-legal officer Dr Manzoor Memon.

The lone survivor of the targeted attack, Salma, fights for her life at the hospital. She is a widow and the only source of income for her three daughters and a son. Salma was shot once in each arm while one of the bullets also pierced her chest.  “Her condition is stable now,” said Dr Memon. Salma’s family are in shock. “What was her fault? Why was she attacked?” questioned her daughter, Hina, hysterically. The injured Shah was discharged from the hospital within four hours. “He was on his way to the market when the first incident occurred,” said Shah’s grandson, Syed Kamran Shah.

 Polio workers’ boycott

Polio workers have announced to boycott the campaign across Sindh. They will not participate in the drive today (Wednesday). “We will not continue the campaign. We were assured by the government regarding security measures but they have failed us,” said the president of Lady Health Workers’ Association, Bushra Arain.

“We will register an FIR against the information minister,” Arain told The Express Tribune. She blamed the Sindh government for the attack, adding that it had failed to provide adequate security to health workers despite repeated assurances. “Memon had said that our workers would be given security but it was a false statement,” she contended.

“Our female workers are not ready to go into the field in such a situation. The government should make an alternative plan. Parents could come to centres to get their children vaccinated. We can’t keep risking our lives for just Rs250,” said Arain. She also demanded the government to compensate the deceased workers, adding that their families should also be given jobs.

Attacks on anti-polio teams and related arrests in the city 

May 3, 2013

Crime Investigation Department claimed to have arrested five members of a banned organisation involved in attacks on anti-polio workers near Kati Pahari.

December 17, 2013

Law enforcers foiled an attack on a polio team in Sohrab Goth by killing a suspected militant and arresting an alleged commander of the same banned outfit in an encounter.

August 22, 2013

A team of vaccinators escaped unhurt in an attack in Gulshan-e-Maymar when the police exchanged fire with a suspected shooter, who was arrested later.

December 18, 2012,

Three consecutive attacks in separate areas of Karachi claimed the lives of four female polio workers and wounded two male workers.

August 6, 2012

The joint investigation team of the Sindh home department claimed to have arrested three suspects on Sunday for their alleged involvement in the attack on World Health Organisation officials engaged in polio vaccination campaign in the city Rawalpindi.

July 20, 2012

Dr Ishaq, a 45-year-old doctor associated with the polio prevention campaign of the World Health Organisation, was gunned down in alAsif Square in Sohrab Goth.

July 17, 2012

A foreign doctor was injured when unidentified men opened fire on a United Nations vehicle passing through Koochi Camp near Sohrab Goth.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 22^nd, 2014.